Fab Four April- A Quartet of Things TNS Is Digging

Ray Wylie Hubbard

This is the third installment of a new monthly feature that is going to highlight four new, new to me, or recently rediscovered items that have made my own personal country music ESPN highlight reel over the last month. It follows up on lists from February and March. Some will be singles, some might be albums and some just might be a live performance or two. It’ll be a little look inside the head of this mad-about-country-music-man. 

Without further ado…

 1. Ray Wylie Hubbard – “Mother’s Blues”

Grizzled and gravelly in delivery, this storyteller’s storyteller delivers an amazing autobiography in four minutes. It’s filled with strippers, drinking, lost fortunes… and as amazing as it might sound… a love story. It has a genius line in it that reads, “The days I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, those are pretty good days" It marks one of the favorite tracks of the year. The track can be found off of his recently released The Grifter’s Hymnal album. Below is a live video from our friends over at Music Fog:



 2. Deric Ruttan- “Main Street, 1979”

If you’ve not heard of Mr. Ruttan, most likely you’re located somewhere south of North Dakota. This Canadian up and comer has made his biggest mark thus in the Great White North. In this day and age in where it seems like every country singer is telling us how everything is better out in the country, Ruttan delivers a heartwarming and sentimental song that highlights everything that was special in small town America… or small town Canada. You can choose. Listen for yourself below.



 3. Joe Walsh – “Analog Man”

If you saw the recent That Nashville Sound column about the best of the first quarter of 2012, you saw this single up on top of the list of favorite singles. The Eagles guitarist is back with a solo album soon and this is the first cut being released to the public. “What’s wrong with vinyl, I think it sounds great. LP’s, 45’s and 78’s. What’s wrong with those? But that’s just the way I am. I’m an analog man.” Amen, Joe.



4. Chris Stapleton- “Tennessee Whiskey”

Musicians Against Childhood Cancer stages a summer festival each year outside Columbus, Ohio, to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Performances at the festival are recorded, edited and released as CDs to help raise even more money. In 2006, the International Bluegrass Music Association named one of those albums, Celebration of Life, as its album of the year. The newest effort, an album titled Life Goes On, is thirty-nine songs performed by a total of 139 artists. On it is this incredible track by Chris Stapleton, the former lead for the bluegrass band The Steeldrivers. It’s a cover of a classic George Jones and it’s perfection in sound. Do a good deed and buy this one at www.ruralrhythm.com.